Contributors: Igor Shaverskyi
Last updated: August 2025
Most companies don’t fail because of poor execution—they fail because they build for the wrong market.
How to avoid that? Do market research.
But not the DIY kind (it’s helpful but limited). We’re talking about working with professional market research consultants—the ones who help you validate demand, understand buying behavior, and spot shifts before your competitors do.
The global market research industry is set to hit $93.29B in 2025. Why? Because in uncertain markets, insight becomes a competitive edge.
That’s why more businesses are turning to expert research partners—and that’s why we put this guide together.
Inside, you’ll find the top 10 market research companies in 2025, including info on why they really matter and how to choose the one that fits your stage, goals, and budget.
Let’s dive in!
A list of top market research companies:
Best 3 picks for startups at a glance:
Top market research consultants and companies
1. Gartner
Gartner is a trusted global market research consultant with 2,500 experts on board. The firm helps its clients with expert guidance, consulting, and tools to build plans and execute them. Gartner also provides conferences and has a peer community with over 10,000 members, so you get market research consulting services and the ability to connect with other entrepreneurs and industry experts.
Location: Headquartered in Stamford, CT, with offices in 90 countries and territories
Gartner is notable for:
Market research consultancy
Benchmark analytics
Data insights
Supply chain management
Tools for plan creation and execution
Industries: Cybersecurity, High Tech, Finance, Human Resources, Technology, Legal, Marketing, Information, Sales, Supply Chain
Best for: Global enterprises making high-stakes technology and go-to-market decisions.
Notable achievements:
As of 2025, Gartner is a $6.3 billion company with 21,000 associates and is a member of the S&P 500. The firm has been working as a market research consultant for over 45 years. It has acquired several leading firms in the industry, including CEB, AMR Research, and Burton Group.
Contacts: Contact-us page, LinkedIn
2. Waveup
Waveup is one of the top-tier consultants in startup growth, venture capital, and market research. The consulting firm offers full-cycle fundraising support at all stages and helps startups prepare investor documents, explore the market, pitch to investors, and scale globally.
Location: Offices in London and Kyiv
You can benefit from:
Industries: Agnostic
Best for: VC-backed startups that seek investor-grade market intelligence and fundraising support.
Why this company is notable:
Waveup has partnered with 120+ VC firms, helped six startups reach unicorn status, and its clients have already secured $610M+ in funding. Its Copilot platform offers insights, editable pitch decks, cap tables, VC databases, and financial models.
Contacts: Contact-us page, LinkedIn
3. Bixa
Bixa is a boutique market research consultant that blends qualitative and quantitative methods to help clients make smarter business decisions and deeply understand their target audiences.
Location: Headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia
What it offers:
Market research consulting services
Predictive analytics
Corporate training
Brand trackers
Online courses (UX research, B2B, audience segmentation, etc.)
Keynotes & speaking engagements
Industries: Retail, E-commerce, Consumer Goods. Technology, Healthcare, Financial Services, Education
Best for: Product and UX teams that need deep, consumer-centric insights on tight timelines.
Why it stands out:
Bixa has established itself as a trusted market research consultant for leading companies such as Google, Facebook (Meta), Cox Communications, and IBM.
Contacts: Contact-us page, LinkedIn
4. Dynata
Dynata is all about high-quality, trustworthy data. With a first-party panel of 70M+ people across 50+ countries, they’ve run over 125 million surveys—with a 96% acceptance rate. Certified by Neutronian for data quality, they help clients make smarter, faster decisions based on real insights.
Location: Headquartered in Shelton, Connecticut
Dynata provides:
Audience targeting
Consumer insights
Data analytics & reporting
Programmatic advertising
Brand health tracking
Market research consultancy
Industries: Spans various industries, from Retail and Automotive to Financial Services
Best for: Agencies and consultancies that need access to extensive, high-quality global panels.
Contacts: Contact us, LinkedIn
5. Ipsos
Paris-based Ipsos is one of the biggest names in market research consultancy. With 19,000 experts in 90+ countries, they offer deep insight into how people think and behave—region by region, industry by industry. Their Global Advisor tool helps businesses track trends and make smarter decisions backed by real-time data.
Location: Paris, France
What services you can find here:
Brand health tracking
Customer experience measurement
Market research consulting services
Product innovation research
Public opinion polling
Employee engagement
Digital solutions
Industries: Consumer Goods & Retail, Healthcare & Pharmaceuticals, Technology & Telecommunications, Financial Services, Public Sector & Government, Media & Entertainment, Automotive, Travel & Tourism
Best for: Global brands that want to blend behavioral science and AI to sharpen their marketing and communication strategies.
Milestones:
In 2011, Ipsos acquired Synovate, and, as a result, the company doubled in size and became the third-largest market research consulting company worldwide. In 2021, Ipsos launched Project Atlas, and this AI-ML-based initiative helped the firm automate data collection and analysis.
Contacts: Contact-us page, LinkedIn
6. Forrester
Founded in 1983 and trusted by Microsoft and Procter & Gamble, Forrester is one of the most influential market research consultants globally. Each year, they gather insights from over 500,000 consumers, execs, and tech leaders—powering tools like the Forrester Wave, CX Index, and Total Economic Impact (TEI) to help their clients make smarter moves.
Location: Cambridge, the US, with 13 locations globally
Forrester offers:
Market research and consultancy
B2B/B2C marketing executives
Demand & ABM
Digital business & strategy
Portfolio marketing & product
Revenue operations
Verticals the firm serves: Technology and Security, Technology Architecture And Delivery, Customer Experience, Digital Business, B2C Marketing, B2B Marketing, Sales, Product Management, Government
Best for: B2B/B2C leaders that need to quantify ROI on technology and customer experience investments.
Contacts: Contact-us page, LinkedIn
7. Mintel
Mintel has been at the forefront of market research and consultancy since 1972. The company helps brands stay ahead of what people want. Every month, they track 40,000 product launches across 86 countries and speak to over a million consumers, so their insights are based on what’s actually happening in the market. For startups, that means sharper ideas, faster validation, and fewer wrong turns.
Location: The company is headquartered in London and has offices in New York, Chicago, Shanghai, Tokyo, Mumbai, and São Paulo
Key services:
Consumer behavior analysis
Market research consultancy
Tack product innovation
GNPD
Brand and marketing strategy advisory
Best for: FMCG and D2C brands that seek consumer-led product innovation opportunities.
Why this firm is on the list:
Over 5,000 companies, from fast-growing startups to Fortune 500s, rely on Mintel to get the benefits of market research—from spotting trends early to building products people actually want.
Contacts: LinkedIn
8. Nielsen
For over 100 years, Nielsen has been a pioneering data analytics and market research consultant. Today, the firm works with real data from 750,000+ people across global panels—helping startups understand consumer behavior, test demand, and make smarter marketing decisions from day one.
Location: Headquartered in New York, the US, and has offices in the Americas, Asia-Pacific, Europe, Middle East & Africa
What the company offers:
Market research consultancy
Media planning
Scenario planning
Content metadata
Industries: Media and Entertainment, Advertising and Marketing, Consumer, Goods and Retail, Telecommunications, Financial Services, Automotive, Healthcare and Pharmaceuticals, Technology, etc.
Best for: Brands and media companies that need a clear view of how people engage across TV, streaming, and digital.
Why this company stands out:
Nielsen makes it easier to see how people engage with your brand—whether that’s on TV, streaming, or digital. Their new Nielsen ONE platform offers a single view across channels, which is especially useful if you’re running campaigns in multiple formats. For product-focused startups, NielsenIQ zeroes in on retail and shopper data to help fine-tune pricing, placement, and messaging.
Contacts: LinkedIn
9. Adience
Top players like Google, Mastercard, and UKG trust the NYC-based market research agency Adience. Unlike other consultants, this firm solely focuses on B2B markets, so its clients get data and insights precisely tailored to their business model.
Location: Offices in New York and London
Key services:
Market segmentation
Perception tracking
Buying process
Brand development
Product development
Industries: Transport & Logistics, Financial Services, Software & SaaS, IT Hardware, Architecture, Engineering & Construction
Who can benefit the most: B2B SaaS and fintech startups looking to map the full buyer journey and fine-tune pricing or ABM strategies with real data.
Contacts: Contact-us page, LinkedIn
10. Touchstone Research
Touchstone Research is a full-service market research and consumer insights agency helping brands uncover what drives audience behavior. Known for its strength with kids, teens, Gen Z, and emerging tech users, it combines innovative tools and AI-powered research to deliver actionable insights worldwide.
Location: Headquartered in the United States (Connecticut)
Touchstone provides:
Qualitative & quantitative research
UX & usability testing
Insight communities & online panels
Recruitment & fieldwork
Secure content testing (SCT)
Dial testing for media/audio
Conversational AI surveys & augmented sampling
Industries: Technology, Media & Entertainment, Education, Consumer Packaged Goods, Retail & Apparel, Toys & Gaming, Food & Beverage, Sports & Fitness, Healthcare, and Youth & Family markets.
You’ll benefit the most if you’re: A brand or startup targeting Gen Z, kids, or early tech adopters (e.g., AR/VR, gaming, media) and need reliable global insights on how these audiences discover, test, and buy products.
Why it’s a great option:
Touchstone has 30+ years of expertise and operates in 60+ global markets, combining advanced AI-driven sampling and conversational surveys with rigorous data quality and privacy standards. Its proprietary tools (like Secure Content Testing and Dial Tester) help test sensitive content and capture real-time consumer reactions—ideal for product launches, media previews, and UX optimization.
Contacts: Contact-us page, LinkedIn
How we chose these market research companies
We started with a wide search—looking through Google, Crunchbase, and PitchBook—then reviewed each company’s offering in detail through their websites and client work.
What we focused on was market research consultants with real depth, clear positioning, and a track record of helping startups make smarter calls. We also looked at which verticals they cover—and whether they can tailor insights to fast-moving, early-stage teams.
What is market research?
Market research is the process of gathering data about your target customers, competitors, and industry trends so you can make smarter product, pricing, and go-to-market decisions.
It’s how you find out what people actually want—before you spend time or money building the wrong thing.
If you do market research right, you can reduce guesswork, test demand, and move faster with confidence. But if it’s done wrong, you risk building for the wrong customer, missing real opportunities, or worse—making big bets on bad assumptions.
That’s why many startups turn to market research consultants. The right partner brings data and context—they help you ask the right questions, spot patterns early, and turn insight into action when speed matters the most.
What is the role of a market research consultant (a deep dive)?
If you think of business as an organism, then market research consultants are its sensory system—they see opportunities, feel competition, and can help you “touch” your target audience. Consultants dig deeper into the market to understand what your customers really want, whom you’re competing with, and how to meet customers’ needs better than your competitors.
More importantly, market research consultants can translate these findings into solid, actionable plans for growth, so you have the answers and a roadmap on how to make these answers work for you.
Let’s break down what they actually do:
Market research consultants thoroughly analyze the market. They check the market size, which trends shape the market, how competitors operate, and which pricing policies prevail. These insights can help you spot new opportunities and launch windows to bring your product or service to the market at the best time and on the best terms.
They turn data into product and strategy moves. Market research providers back their research with real data—not assumptions. They use surveys, interviews, segmentation, and competitive analysis to understand what your customers want, what gaps exist in the market, and how you stack up. From there, they help you apply those insights—whether that’s refining product features, adjusting pricing, or repositioning your messaging to better stand out.
Market research consultants can improve your marketing. They review what’s working (and what’s not) in your current marketing using KPIs like CAC, LTV, or ROMI. Then, they suggest adjustments, build sharper messaging, and help you design campaigns that speak to the right segments.
They analyze your competitors. Via SWOT analysis, pricing benchmarking, and market positioning analysis, consultants can help you spot competitors’ strengths and potential gaps and find where your business can uniquely fit and stand out.
They can also forecast what’s next. Market research agencies use data and relevant forecasting tools to predict potential headwinds and tailwinds in the market so you can feel more confident while implementing new strategies.
How to choose the right market research consultant?
If you want to find the right partner, follow these tips:
Look for industry expertise. Choose someone who knows your field inside out. For instance, an agricultural consultant will know what to do with sector-specific regulations and operations but can be completely lost if they need to research AI or finance industries.
Look for results. Check out if these market research consulting companies had similar cases—the industry, business model, and objectives. When you know the past, it’s easier to predict if the future will be successful and if your business goals will be achieved.
Check their research toolkit. Search for a consultant skilled in both qualitative methods like interviews and focus groups and quantitative methods like surveys and data analysis. There are more chances to get a fuller picture and better strategies if these two approaches are combined.
Check analytical skills. In addition to data collection skills, a good market research consultant must be able to statistically interpret and visualize data. Raw numbers can’t build a path to success. If these numbers are analyzed, interpreted, and presented clearly, they can help you hit your milestones.
Seek a partner, not a mere consultant. Find someone who shares your personal vibe, asks questions to know more about your business and your goals, and communicates clearly. The future success also depends on how the information is delivered, not only on what is delivered.
Don’t overlook the value of their network. A good consultant can connect you with industry experts, other founders, or potential partners. And down the line, they can help you find other specialists—like business development or VC experts.
Don’t overlook your consultant network. Given their network, you may connect with industry experts, other business owners, or potential partners. It may also be easier for you to find other consultants in the future, like business development or VC experts.
Discuss timelines, KPIs, and costs upfront. When both sides know and understand their rights and obligations, cooperation becomes easier and more productive. Be sure to ask a market research company about pricing and timelines upfront so there are no surprises later.
Don’t skip the data privacy talk. Check if a company follows strict rules to protect your information and stays compliant. It’s easier to handle this upfront—just like pricing—than deal with problems later.
Real-world cases on how market research consultants help
In theory, market research consultants seem like fairy godmothers—they give you what you need (or may lack) to hit your business goals. But let’s get practical. Business people tend to believe only when they see real traction.
Frito Lay, PepsiCo: Brand repositioning
In the early 2000s, Frito Lay, the snack foods subsidiary of PepsiCo, started losing sales and customer loyalty. To turn things around, they brought in market research consultants from Vivaldi Group.
What they did:
Vivaldi ran in-context consumer research—observing how people actually behaved at home. They found that the old slogan, “Betcha can’t eat just one,” sent the wrong message by encouraging overeating (a problem with the value proposition).
So, they repositioned the brand around joy, not just taste. The new message—“Get your smile on”—focused on sharing happy moments with friends and family.
Benefits of market research:
The new positioning worked. Sales jumped by nearly 20%, and brand loyalty came back strong.
Global footwear brand: Market entry fix
A global footwear company had been in South Korea’s golf market for five years—but sales were flat. Despite a great product and a big marketing budget, nothing was moving.
With just one month before a major board meeting, they brought in our Waveup team to figure out what was going wrong.
What we did:
We dug into the brand’s positioning, interviewed customers, distributors, and influencers, and ran a full market and financial analysis. The issues became clear quickly: the wrong distributor, weak pricing strategy, and a misaligned marketing message.
Benefits of market research:
With our help, the company added 100+ new distribution points, increased market share by 15%, and hit $160 million in retail sales.
Final thoughts on market research consultancy
Partner with a market research company if you’re unsure what market to enter, how to position, or why growth is stalling.
The right consultants will help you spot customer preferences, market trends, competitive dynamics, and real growth opportunities.
As Nathan Rothschild once said: “The one who owns the information owns the world.” In your case, that world is the market, the audience, and your edge.
At Waveup, we don’t just deliver research—we go deep into your target market, help you extract real insight, and support your fundraising and growth strategy.
Contact our team, and we’ll gladly help you hit your next milestones.
Related read: The top 12 market research software for startups and small businesses in 2025
FAQs
What is a market research consultant?
Market research consultants are those who help businesses make smarter decisions by digging into customer behavior, market trends, competitors, and growth opportunities. You can think of them as your strategic partners—they’re turning raw data into insight you can act on.
How much does a market research consultant cost?
It depends on the scope and complexity of the project and the experience and expertise of the market research company you choose to cooperate with. That’s why it’s always better to check the prices of your potential candidates before you make the final decision. At Waveup, for example, we tailor our pricing to your stage and goals.
Which company is best for market research?
Some of the top market research companies for startups are Waveup, Mintel, and Adience. But, of course, choosing the best one depends on what exactly you need, as some firms focus on enterprise, others on niche verticals. So, it’s better to review their services, industry fit, and approach, and only then decide which is the best for you.